Faux Fox

Again I was sitting in class, making sure a certain student didn’t lose a digit, (oh how I loved that class!!!).By now I had looked through several patterns on line, this one caught my eye.

So I printed it out, and enlarged it until it was about 7” high, and about 10” long. I made sure I had 2 copies, then went hunting in the scrap bin. There was a piece of pine that fit the bill, so I glued the ‘pattern’ onto the pine, and cut the outline with the jig saw (I love that little tool, so maneuverable)

Then I used an awl to trace the pattern through the paper so that I could wash the paper off. The rest was done mainly with a fine utility knife. I have a set of carving chisels now, but find that the knife gives me better control over fine details. I really wanted it to look like it was assembled from different woods onto a base, so I masked off different parts while I stained it very carefully.

The whole thing took about 6 weeks, and a lot of sanding, it feels like silk, and I especially love the contouring in the face. To think that a scrap of pine can end up like this…. wow! It never fails to amaze me what can be hidden in the grain.